Iraqi security forces free German woman kidnapped in Baghdad
>>BAGHDAD: A German woman kidnapped in Baghdad last week was freed overnight and handed over to her embassy, officials from the two countries said on Friday.
“Security forces have freed activist Hella Mewis,” Iraq’s military spokesman Yahya Rasool said.
Iraq’s interior ministry said a joint task force, including the elite Falcons intelligence forces and federal police and anti-crime units, carried out the operation in east Baghdad.
Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanemi handed Ms Mewis over to the German embassy in Baghdad, the ministry said.
A video released by the ministry showed Iraqi officials and German diplomats together with a tired-looking Ms Mewis.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he was “relieved” that Ms Mewis was freed, confirmed she was at the embassy in Baghdad and thanked Iraq’s government.
Ms Mewis has worked in the Iraqi capital since 2013 and was one of the few Westerners who lived outside the high-security Green Zone, where most diplomatic missions are located.
She ran arts programmes at Iraqi collective Beit Tarkib and was close to many young photographers and painters.
Ms Mewis was leaving her office in central Baghdad on Monday evening when unidentified assailants in two cars, including a white pickup truck typically used by Iraqi security forces, abducted her.
Police officers at the local station witnessed the abduction but did not intervene, the source added.
Dhikra Sarsam, a friend of Ms Mewis, said she had been in contact with her since her release.
“She told me that she was doing well and had not been badly treated” in custody, Ms Sarsam said.
The identity of her abductors and the reason for her kidnapping were still being investigated, as some details of her release emerged.
Ms Mewis was found in an abandoned building.
A security source said she was freed from a location in Sadr City, a densely populated district in east Baghdad where security forces have tried in vain for years to impose law and order.
“Hours after she was kidnapped, security forces detained a man who incriminated several people who belong to a faction close to the Hashed al-Shaabi,” the source said.
The man was later released and security forces were able to pressure the kidnappers to release Ms Mewis.